The Lost Distilleries of Dufftown
- Mitch Bechard
- 12 hours ago
- 5 min read
Stories from the Malt Whisky Capital of the World
When I bring guests into Dufftown, I usually start in the same place, standing beside the clock tower in the middle of the town.
We stop for a moment and look around.
To them it looks like a quiet Speyside village. A few shops, a couple of pubs, a great wee coffee shop (shout out to Beinn Books!) and the hills rising up around above it. But then I explain that almost everything they’re looking at exists for one reason.
Whisky.
Dufftown didn’t just happen to have distilleries built in it, the town was built around whisky making. Warehouses, railways, cooperages, workers’ houses… the entire place grew because of the whisky industry.
There’s an old line locals like to repeat:
“Rome was built on seven hills, Dufftown stands on seven stills.”
This saying came around due to the core core distillery boom happened over a 74 year period so for a long time, that saying wasn’t far from the truth.
Founded in 1817 by James Duff, 4th Earl of Fife, as a planned town to provide employment for soldiers returning from the Napoleonic wars, today it is home to distilleries like Glenfiddich, Balvenie, Mortlach, Glendullan, Dufftown Distillery and Kininvie.
After telling my guests that this wee town is capable of producing the equlilant of seven olyimpic size swimming pools of single malt in a year I mention that there are a few distilleries that simply didn’t survive.
The whisky industry has always moved in cycles of boom and bust, and Dufftown has experienced both sides of that story. Some distilleries disappeared during difficult times, while others grew into global icons. Today the town is home to some of the biggest names in single malt. Glenfiddich has become the world’s best-selling, while spirit from Dufftown and Glendullan helps create The Singleton, a global brand that now sits around fifth in the world by volume in the single malt category.
So waht happed to the ones that quietly disappeared, leaving behind only stories, empty buildings, or in some cases… nothing at all.
These are a few of Dufftown’s lost distilleries.
Pittyvaich (1974–1993)
Pittyvaich is one of the hardest distilleries to show people, because there is so little left to see.
It was one of the youngest distilleries ever established in Dufftown, and one of the quickest to disappear. Today it has vanished so thoroughly that all that really remains is a patch of ground among the buildings of Dufftown Distillery. Most people would never know it was there unless someone pointed it out.
Founded in 1974 by Arthur Bell & Sons, Pittyvaich was created as a sister distillery to Dufftown. It stood beside the original site, shared the same water sources, and even used stills that were exact replicas of Dufftown’s, all to produce more malt for Bell’s blends. And it has one of my favourite little twists in Dufftown whisky history: when Dufftown Distillery was founded in the 1890s, “Pittyvaich” was apparently considered as a name, but rejected for being too difficult to pronounce. Bell’s brought it back anyway.
But the boom didn’t last.
By the early 1990s, the whisky industry was dealing with a huge surplus, and Pittyvaich became one of the casualties. It closed in 1993 and was later demolished, leaving no trace behind. That short lifespan, and the fact that so little of it was ever bottled as single malt, has made surviving bottles of Pittyvaich a bit of a unicorn.
Convalmore (1894–1985)
Convalmore is a different kind of lost distillery.
It’s one I always mention because, unlike Pittyvaich, it hasn’t vanished completely. If you know where to look, it is still there, silent, but still standing.
Convalmore was one of Dufftown’s great Victorian distilleries, the fourth of the town’s famous seven stills, built in 1893/94 during the whisky boom. Designed by local architect Donald Mackay, and over the years it became an important contributor to Buchanan’s Black & White blend.
I’ve got a personal connection to Convalmore. The site is now owned by William Grant & Sons, and in 2016 I was one of 20 ambassadors invited into the Convalmore warehouses to select casks that would go on to form Glenfiddich Project XX.
In 1909 the distillery was damaged by fire, and after rebuilding, a Coffey still was experimented with for a time, an unusual move for a malt distillery, and one that most people have never heard about.
Convalmore closed in 1985 when the industry hit another downturn, but unlike Pittyvaich, it didn't disappeared completely. The stills are gone, yet the buildings remain, now folded into the wider William Grant & Sons site as warehouses. It gives Convalmore a different kind of afterlife, not a vanished distillery, but a silent one still standing in plain sight.
Parkmore (1894–1931)
Parkmore is usually the one that really catches people’s attention.
When I point it out on a tour, people immediately notice the buildings. Even though distilling stopped there in 1931, it still has a presence. In many ways, it is one of the most visually striking reminders of Dufftown’s whisky past.
Founded in 1894, Parkmore was the fifth of Dufftown’s famous seven stills. Built during the late Victorian whisky boom, it never survived long enough to become a household name, but what it left behind is one of the most impressive distillery sites in the town. Its surviving buildings, designed by Charles Doig, still give it real character.
It’s also a distillery I often talk about because it has been so immaculately maintained by its current owner, Edrington. That care has helped preserve it as one of Dufftown’s most haunting whisky landmarks, even though the spirit itself has long since stopped flowing.
And Parkmore’s story comes with a sting in the tail.
Later whisky lore claims it was once introduced, not entirely kindly, as producing “the worst whisky in Speyside” , the sort of line that may well have grown legs over the years, but which says a lot about old distillery rivalries and the reputation Parkmore carried in some corners of the trade.
That reputation sits in sharp contrast to the beauty of the site itself. Whatever people said about the whisky, the buildings have outlasted it and become part of Dufftown’s wider story of boom, bust and survival.
The Stories Behind the Stills
That’s one of the things I enjoy most about taking people around Dufftown. Yes, you can visit the famous distilleries, taste world-class whisky, and stand in the heart of one of the greatest whisky towns on earth.
But the town really starts to come alive when you talk about the distilleries that didn’t make it.
Some vanished almost without trace. Some are still standing in silence. All of them played a part in shaping the Dufftown we see today. And when you’re standing there beside the clock tower, looking around at this small Speyside town, that’s when it really lands.
Dufftown was not just built on whisky success.
It was built on whisky stories.
If you’d like to explore Dufftown and hear more of the stories hidden behind its streets, warehouses and stills, join us on a whisky adventure. From world-famous distilleries to the quieter corners of whisky history, this is Speyside through the eyes of someone who knows and loves it.
Mitch Bechard
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